MV Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director, JSW Steel, yesterday said that the company was seeking legal opinion on whether it would be eligible to bid for Essar Steel together with contenders that had already thrown their hats in the ring: ArcelorMittal, Numetal and Vedanta.

It has been alleged that ArcelorMittal had 32 and 29 per cent stakes in KSS Petron and Uttam Galva respectively and it had exited from them after selling the stakes before submitting the resolution plan to take over the Essar Steel.

The Mittal-owned company told the SC it would lift the escrow on Rs 7,000 crore and pay the money owed by Uttam Galva and KSS Petron -- the defaulting companies in which the steel tycoon is classified as promoter -- if it gets to bid successfully for Essar Steel.

Numetal's first bid was rejected due to the 25% share owned by Rewant Ruia, the son of Essar Steel founder Ravi Ruia, since he was deemed a related party. JSW Steel bought out this contentious stake ahead of the second bidding round

At a hearing before a two-member bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for ArcelorMittal, said \"NuMetal and Rewant Ruia are alter ego of each other. They both are the same.\"

Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the sale process has almost been completed in three cases -- Bhushan Steel, Electrosteel Steels and Monnet Ispat and Energy. There is less clarity in the other cases when the 270 day timeframe for resolution ends around now.

Last week, Essar Steel's Committee of Creditors (CoC) told both suitors, ArcelorMittal and Numetal, that their bids would only be considered if they repaid all pending dues owed by people/entities connected to them within a week.

The new round of bid will see larger bids since it will be the last chance to win the battle. In addition, the bids may go up the size of over Rs 35,000 crore, when Essar's loans stands at around Rs 45,000 crore.

Both the petitioners, Numetal and ArcelorMittal, welcomed the verdict for the prize is a big one, despite the fact that Essar Steel boasts the third biggest debt pile (over Rs 44,000 crore) among the initial 12 companies identified by the RBI for insolvency proceedings.

In the first round, NuMetal and ArcelorMittal were the only two parties that had bid to take over Essar Steel but the insolvency resolution professional overseeing the auction was advised to reject both the bids owing to their promoters being linked to defaulter companies.